Nuclear Blast press release

After the phenomenal last studio album "Gothic Kabbalah" (2007), easily Therion's most stunning effort since "Theli", and the follow-up live CD "Live Gothic" (2008), Therion mastermind and only remaining founding member Christofer Johnsson decided to go for a rather special project: the band's appearance at the remarkable and renowned International Opera Festival in Miskolc, Hungary in 2007 was taped on and off stage to preserve a truly unique classic metal event for the Therion fanbase! The first part - dubbed "Classical adventures" - features some of Christofer's favourite composers (especially his alltime fave, Wagner) and does completely without guitars or any metal instrumentation whatsoever. Just orchestra and choir. Part two, "Therion songs", delivers exactly that: finest Therion material performed by the band, a huge orchestra and choir. Rounding off "The Miskolc Experience" is an entertaining documentary which gives insight in the complicated organisation and the no less complicated execution with all ups and downs for the involved crew and musicians.

"The Miskolc Experience" is the testimony of the brilliant Johnsson/Niemann/Niemann/Karlsson Therion line-up which Christofer Johnsson decided to dissolve in late 2008. This chapter of Therion is closed, a new era is about to begin - and Therion will soon open the book once again!

DVD + CD art work and tracklist:

Part 1 - Classical Adventures: (44 min.)
01. Clavicula Nox
02. Dvorak: Excerpt from Symphony no. 9
03. Verdi: Vedi! le fosche notturne spotigle from Il Trovatore
04. Mozart: "Dies Irae" from Reqiuem
05. Saint-Saens: Excerpt from Symphony No. 3
06. Wagner: "Notung! Notung! Niedliches Schwert!" from The Ring
07. Wagner: Excerpt from the Overture from Rienzi
08. Wagner: Second part of "Der Tag ist da" from Rienzzi
09. Wagner: First part of "Herbei! Herbei!" from Rienzi

Part 2 - Therion Songs: (66 min.)

01. Blood Of Kingu
02. Sirius B
03. Lemuria
04. Eternal Return
05. Draconian Trilogy
06. Schwartsalbenheim
07. Via Nocturna
08. The Rise Of Sodom And Gomorrah
09. Grand Finale

Bonus Features (DVD only):
+ Documentary (20 min.)
+ Therion Goes Classic - Bucharest (16 min.)

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Source:	nuclearblast.de
Band profile:	Therion

Due to ligament / tendon damage to drummer James Heatleys left hand, The Answer regret to announce the postponement their imminent UK headline club shows. The affected shows are as follows:

Apr 20th - Belfast Mandela Hall
Apr 22nd - Nottingham Rescue Rooms
Apr 24th - Glasgow Grand Central

Rescheduled Dates Are (All Tickets Will Be Valid For The New Dates):

June29th - Belfast Mandela Hall
July 2nd - Glasgow Grand Central
July 3rd - Nottingham Rescue Rooms

Says singer Cormac Neeson, "We are bitterly disappointed to have to postpone our UK headline shows especially for all our fans who have been waiting so patiently for so long. We have left the decision to the absolute last minute in the hope that the medical problem with our drummer James might get better. Unfortunately his hand is swollen and he is in immense pain. He has struggled with pain-killers to get through the recent 30 minute support sets on the AC/DC tour and whilst he can perform a short support set, it is a medical impossibility for him to perform a full one hour and fifteen minute headline set at present.

We are all very upset that we cannot play our full headline show and we will reschedule the postponed shows as soon as we can. Furthermore and as a token of our appreciation to all our disappointed fans we will provide a free and new limited signed tour poster for everyone who has purchased a ticket and this will be distributed at the rescheduled shows. Once again we are very sorry at not being able to perform but you know we would never postpone any show unless it was an absolute necessity and in this case we are all hoping that James will make a swift and speedy recovery."

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	The Answer

In autumn, Amorphis will embark on an extensive one-month European tour comprising Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and even including the band's first-ever appearance in the UK. Tickets for the Forging Europe Tour 2009 will go on sale on Monday, April 27. Support acts will be announced later.

Forging Europe Tour 2009:

07.10 Kato, Berlin (D)
08.10 Club Romein, Leeuwarden (NL)
09.10 De Nieuwe Pul, Uden (NL)
10.10 Underworld, London (GB)
11.10 Biebob, Vosselaar (B)
13.10 L'ubu, Rennes (F)
14.10 La Locomotive, Paris (F)
15.10 Musik Zentrum, Hannover (D)
16.10 Alte Spinnerei, Glauchau (D)
17.10 Masters Of Rock Café, Zlin (CZ)
18.10 Boogaloo, Zagreb (HR)
20.10 Szene, Vienna (A)
21.10 Colos-Saal, Aschaffenburg (D)
22.10 Z7, Pratteln (CH)
23.10 Juz Live Club, Andernach (D)
24.10 Hellflame Festival, Lichtenfels (D)
25.10 Rock Café, Prague (CZ)
27.10 Loch Ness, Cracow (PL)
28.10 Diesel, Budapest (HU)
29.10 Sala Da Concerte, Bucharest (RO)
30.10 Blue Box, Sofia (BUL)
31.10 Principal Club Theatre, Thessaloniki (GR)
01.11 Gagarin 205, Athens (GR)
03.11 Alpeus, Rome (I)
04.11 Musicdrome, Milan (I)
05.11 Substage, Karlsruhe (D)
06.11 Backstage, Munich (D)
07.11 Turock, Essen (D)

Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Amorphis
Event:	Amorphis: Forging Europe Tour

Artillery have revealed cover artwork and tracklist for the upcoming new album "When Death Comes".

01. When Death Comes
02. Upon My Cross I Crawl
03. 10.000 Devils
04. Rise Above It All
05. Sandbox Philosophy
06. Delusions Of Grandeur
07. Not A Nightmare
08. Damned Religion
09. Uniform
10. The End
11. Refuse To Live - Part II
12. Warhead
13. Chaos Ride

"When Death Comes" is expected to be released in Europe in June and in Japan in July through Poland's Metal Mind Productions.

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Artillery

Slipknot have released their new video for the song "Sulfur". The clip was shot in Los Angeles in February and directed by band percussionist Shawn Crahan (aka Clown) and P.R. Brown. The video depicts the nine members rocking out in groups of three and submerged in water one at a time. The video concept was modeled after a video installation by Bill Viola called "Ascension" that's currently on display at the Des Moines Arts Center. More explanation by Shawn Crahan at this location.


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Source:	headbangersblog.mtv.com
Band profile:	Slipknot

Rotting Christ have issued the following statement regarding the Malaysia show postponement:

"Rotting Christ find themselves in the unpleasant situation to announce the postpone of their forthcoming appearance in Malaysia. Due to what promoter appealed the band could not manage to get all the proper papers from the local authorities for the legal carrying on of the show... All we can do as a band is to send our promise to our fans there that so much has supported our band from their first steps that we are going to work hard in order to make our appearance in their country a reality and specifically in December."

Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Rotting Christ
Event:	Rotting Christ [POSTPONED]

Italian doom metallers Void Of Silence have parted ways with Alan Nemtheanga and are now looking for a new singer: "We are looking for a versatile, creative individual (man or woman) with high motivation and a capability of singing in different styles, from strong clean singing to all ranges of grunts, growls and shrieks. If you feel you might be the one, please send us your demo or email."

Void Of Silence explained its split with Alan Nemtheanga by saying in a statement, "Void Of Silence was forced to let Alan go to be able to continue. Alan's full-time engagement in Primordial increasingly prevented Void Of Silence from completing the brand new album, scheduled for Autumn 2009 on code666 "

Void Of Silence was founded in 1999 and has thus far released three full-length albums of "apocalyptic doom metal" and are currently signed to code666 Records, which released its latest album, "Human Antithesis", with worldwide critical acclaim in 2004.

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Void Of Silence

According to a posting by the band, their fifth studio album "In The Constellation Of The Black Widow" will be released through Candlelight Records on June 29th 2009.
A limited edition vinyl will also be released by Feto Records in the same month. More info about that coming soon. A digital single entitled "More of Fire Than Blood" will be released via Itunes on 6th June.

Commenting on the new album, vocalist Dave Hunt states: "Constellation will be faster, more insidious, more ominous, more musically dextrous and wilder than ever before. The album will feature a curve ball guest appearance from Zeitgeist Memento of Mexican extremists Republica."

Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Anaal Nathrakh

Two medley songs from the upcoming Epica live album "The Classical Conspiracy" have been posted online here. The album is scheduled for a May 8 release via Nuclear Blast Records.

The band comments: "2009 is going to be a great year for Epica and their fans. First of all, the 8th of May the long expecting "the Classical Conspiracy" live-album will be released, and secondly, a brand new studio album will be released at September or early October of the same year. To celebrate this release Epica will perform in one of the most beautiful dutch venues: Paradiso! The show will take place on Saturday the 10th of October. The pre-sales will start at the 25th of April."

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Epica

California's traditional melodic metal band Crescent Shield, which features the talents of former Destiny's End guitarist Dan DeLucie and ex-Onward vocalist Michael Grant, have made their entire second album, "The Stars of Never Seen" available for streaming on the band's official web site (click on audio player on the right handside) and MySpace.

The CD will be released via Cruz del Sur Music on the following dates:

May 8: Germany
May 11: Rest of Europe
June 2: USA/Canada

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Source:	crescentshield.com
Band profile:	Crescent Shield

Official press release

After a short break Vader entered the studio again to continue recording session of band's new effort "Necropolis". The tracklisting for the new album has been confirmed. At the moment Piotr "Peter" Wiwczarek is working on guitar and vocal parts. This week Tomasz "Reyash" Rejek will start laying down bass parts. Peter also announces a special guest appearance in a few solo parts on the album. As you may know, in the meantime the band signed a worldwide deal with Nuclear Blast. What a great news to keep the band even more motivated! Here is a brief report from the studioby Peter:

"Welcome again, ALL worshippers of Metal Power! The next step in creating of new album is behind us... "Necropolis" has its shape now. Today (April 16th) we finish recordings of main guitars and after a week break we coming back to the studio to make all leads, bass and vocal parts." The whole program of the album looks like this:

01. Devilized
02. Rise Of The Undead pre-production version]
03. Never Say My Name
04. Dark Heart
05. Blast
06. Impure pre-production version]
07. We Are Horde
08. Anger
09. When The Sun Drowns In Dark
10. The Sigil
11. Dei Nostri
12. Summoning The Futura

The band reportedly recorded two cover songs during the sessions too.

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Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Vader

According to a short message posted by the band's management on the official Immortal website, the Norwegian black metallers have commenced recording their new album:

"Immortal hordes!

The band has started to record the upcoming album!
They will be working in both Grieghallen and Abyss studios this time."

Source:	immortalofficial.com
Band profile:	Immortal

Polish extreme metalers Behemoth have set "Evangelion" as the title of their 9th full length studio album due out this summer. "Evangelion" marks the follow up to the bands extremely successful 2007 release "The Apostasy"; a release which saw Behemoth acquire the supporting slot to second stage headliners Hatebreed on Ozzfest which also featured Lamb Of God, Lordi, and Nile just to name a few.

Following Ozzfest, Behemoth co-headlined the Radio Rebellion Tour with Job For A Cowboy with support from Gojira and Beneath The Massacre with the band's final North American tour being a direct support slot to Norwegian legends, Dimmu Borgir. After a short break for writing, Behemoth entered Radio Gdansk in Poland to begin recording. "Evangelion" see's Behemoth, Daniel Bergstrand and Woytek and Slawek Wieslawscy as producers with Colin Richardson (Machine Head, Slipknot, Napalm Death, Carcass) set to mix the album.

Here's what frontman Nergal has to say; "I've had this title in my head for almost a year now and it grew on me. It sounds nothing but powerful and epic which perfectly mirrors the essence of the new album. "Evangelion" comes from a Greek word "Spreading the word of God" or "spreading the good news" ...oh well, you already know that we love to play with the meanings and symbolism. We're here to show you our interpretation of what "Evangelion" really is."

Details on "Evangelion"'s packaging, artwork, track listing, and pre-orders will be announced over the coming months so be sure to keep an eye on the band's sites and Metal Blade (US) and Nuclear Blast's (Europe) sites for further information.

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Source:	behemoth.pl
Band profile:	Behemoth

Mastodon will be playing at the Launchpad in Albuquerque, NM tomorrow, April 15th, as part of the MySpace's Secret Show series. If you haven't signed up as a friend of MySpace Secret Shows do so now, here. The Secret Show is a free, exclusive performance for the MySpace community. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis.

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Mastodon
Event:	Mastodon: N. American Tour

Alice In Chains have posted the following band update on their MySpace:

"As most of you who have been paying attention have already figured out, the new Alice In Chains album is finally complete. We've been in the studio since October, and since it all began we celebrated 6 major holidays, elected a new President of the United States, crowned new World Series and Super Bowl champs, endured fires, earthquakes, & blackouts in and around Los Angeles, took a 2 1/2 week break to go to Australia, and to cap it all off, William & Jerry finally euthanized their beards.

This long, arduous process is complete, and although there's still a lot of work to be done, the songs are in the can and that's the most important thing. So what can I tell you when I look back on the last six months? I can tell you that the monotony of 12 to 16 hour days in the studio can be broken up by multiple costumes & hair styles, hours and hours of dice games, any sort of dialogue delivered in a heavily accentuated southern drawl, and a slew of special guests dropping by the studio.

Most of all I can tell you that some amazing songs were written and recorded. From the heaviest riff-dripping gut puncher to the most sadly beautiful song I think this band has ever recorded, I honestly believe that this album will return Alice In Chains to the top of the hard rock heap. So now the next few months are dedicated to things like album artwork, lining up interviews & press, shooting videos, planning tours, and figuring out whether to bury Jerry & William's beards at sea or donate them to science.

Hopefully these new songs will strike a chord and make a similar impact on all of you out there that were moved by this band in the first place. These songs have definitely done that with me, and frankly I'm getting pretty sick and tired of loving this stuff alone, so I can't wait for it to be released so it'll become your favorite record of 2009 and we can discuss it at the shows.

So clear a slot in your CD shelf and schedule maternity leave from work in September, because the long drought will be over soon."

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Alice In Chains